This Summer's turned out to be quite the roller coaster ride for Papa John's founder John Schnatter. First, he and the pizza chain held a contest to locate his 1971 Camaro, the car he sold to finance his first pizza joint 25 years ago.
In what seemed like a fairy tale, Schnatter reunited with his long lost Camaro in Flatwoods, KY. But here's where the story turns sour: Papa John's is now suing one Kentucky couple, Phillip and Billie Slone, who believe they deserve the $250,000 search prize.
According to the Slones, they first alerted Papa John's to the vehicle's whereabouts. Papa John's has fired back, accusing the Slones of fraud. The chain claims that after it informed Billie Slone that she didn't qualify for the prize without the vehicle's title, she contacted the titleholder, Jeff Robinson, and told him she knew a man who would pay for his Camaro.
Although Papa John's offered the Slones $25,000 for the role they played in linking Robinson to the pizza chain, Billie Slone has accused the company of amending winning guidelines after the contest was under way. I'm saddened to see a monetary prize spoil such a fun competition. Who is at fault: Papa John's or the Slones?
Gambini
Development
Jasmine Di Milo
Papa John's offered the Slones $25,000 for the role they played in linking Robinson to the pizza chain - i'd say that's very fair and very honorable of the chain and the Slones are simply being greedy
1Isn't the couple suing Papa Johns, not the company suing the couple? I'm confused by this article.
2I agree... The Sloan's didn't have the title. Getting $25,000 for connecting JS with the car is way more than fair. Greedy is an understatement!
3It appears that the suit was filed by Papa John's as a preemptive action in what was sure to be a suit - countersuit type of case anyway. Papa John's seems to be claiming some form of fraud as well as slander; The Sloans' countersuit will likely allege bad faith in breach of contract.
The Sloans had previously come off as helpful citizens. Now they sound petty.
4Papa John's is suing this couple. I completely think Papa Johns is being jerks if I read this correctly. From what I'm reading this couple FOUND his car and without them, he wouldn't have found it. Just because they weren't the titleholder isn't an issue as far as I see. They found it for him. 25k is a nice thing to toss at them but feels kind of dickish to last minute toss in there "Oh, but you don't own the car? You just know who does? Here's some money to shut you up and for your time" I think they should pay them the full amount.
5Read the corresponding linked articles. The rules stated the winner must transfer the title (ie OWN the car themselves.) Not only that - the owner knew about the contest and the Sloans came to him - offering 125k to buy it from him, since he knew about the contest he obviously didn't take the offer. The Sloans said they didn't offer to buy the car but rather split the profits with the owner - which means they knew they didn't have the rights to the 250k and were trying to get as much as possible. The car's owner redeemed the prize by transferring the title and they in turn filed suit with Papa Johns - Papa Johns filed right back. The Sloans are greedy and bitter (they sold the car to the owner 9 years ago). They should be grateful that even 25K was offered to them. In fact, that was the original amount of the prize - the only "change" Papa Johns made to the contest was increasing the prize to 250K.
6Aaaahh ok, then that makes much more sense. The Sloanes look like assholes then.
7Yeah that post was a little confusing for a second. I had to reread it. I agree with some of the people on here.
If Papa said he would pay up then he should. But only if the original rules were follow and the rules were not changed after the contest began.
8Any judge will take one look at the rules and throw out any suit filed by the Slone family.
9The rules are clear, and any monetary reward offered to the Slone family is just pure kindness.
Amen. Geeze... I wonder if anyone is looking for the classic Impala I had when I was 18.
I would be thrilled just to have been able to have helped reunite him with the car. Being given 25K without even owning the car any longer would be a great bonus.
The Sloans seem to be sorry that they didn't hold on to it. They had better be careful... greed tends to bite hard and lawyers could go through 25K really, REALLY fast!
Thems the breaks.
10that's a shame. to be honest, the guy that had the car should give part of the $$ to the folks that alerted him to the search. it's like a brokers fee.
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